One of my earliest and fond­est memories of drawing was a picture of Snoopy that I had cre­ated for my grandfather. I must have been three- or four-years-old at the time. It was also my first commission. I remember my grandfather sitting at the kitchen table, puffing his pipe, with large plumes of grey and white smoke filling the air as we negotiated payment. We struck a deal whereby he re­ceived an original Snoopy drawing from me and I received two Dad’s oatmeal cookies as payment. To this day, I still think I was overpaid, but he was a good man with a kind heart.

In my teen years, I found that music deeply influenced my artwork. Albums such as The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles were magical. With the volume turned up to the maximum, I could close my eyes and drift into the music. Often, images would pop into my head and I would see the artwork completed before I even started. All I had to do was reach into my mind and grab it. It’s an incredible feeling and to this day I cannot create artwork without music playing.